I'M THE LUCKY WINNER ! ???

A little while back I won a blog giveaway from a very talented and inspirational artist Debora Mori (I usually never win anything, but I've won 3 things in the last couple of months, so my luck must be changing around!).

Well, I came home this morning after taking the kids to school to sort some mail that had piled up for a few days and to my delight her cards had arrived!

I am so happy to have her cards, and I am thankful for her generosity. Deborah is a great artist and a wonderful soul. I encourage you to visit her blog! Oh, yeah, and if you don't make it to her blog, you may just see her stuff at Target...

IF: CONFINED AND WINTER CONFERENCE

...Tired of being confined in the castle after night fall, the boy sneaked out with the dragon to go on an adventure.

I guess I am cheating a bit this week with the word 'CONFINED' since I'm posting the finished piece from last week, but I think it fit the prompt rather well. I also really liked how this illo turned out. I think I will do something with it for my next promo card.

I have some very exciting news, I am going to the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York at the end of this month. I will be taking the illustrator's intensive session as well. I was very reluctant about going for all the reasons anyone would be hesitant to go... am I ready?, can I get my portfolio/promo materials ready on time?, can I update my website before the trip?, etc... Well, Ready or not, I am going! I couldn't think of waiting another year for such an opportunity.

I will not be posting much this month since I will be preparing for the trip, among another gizillion things I have to do! But, I will try to blog or Twitter about the conference while I'm there.

If you are going let me know. I would love to meet some of you while I'm out there!

Thanks for all your comments and all your New Year wishes, they really mean a lot to me and I really appreciate them!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I recently completed a commissioned illustration which was to represent 2009 in the world of business. I used a slightly different style to make it more editorial.

For many companies this year, business was like pulling a boat through the desert. Let's hope that 2010 is smooth sailing for most of us! Good luck and I wish you all a happy, healthy and very CREATIVE 2010!!!

IF: PIONEER

Little did Timmy know that he was the first kid to ever hop on a dragon! He was a pioneer!

This is an idea that I've had for a while, and with this week's IF prompt I thought it would be appropriate. I wasn't sure if to dress up the boy with a different outfit as if he was part of dragon land or to make it obvious that this is his imagination, therefore he is in PJ's. What do you think?
I'll be coloring this soon and re-posting.

Congrats to Vanessa for winning a signed print of my work!

Happy New Year to all! and may 2010 bring you health, happiness and success! I cannot complaint about 2009 as it was very good to me and my family.

STORIES FOR CHILDREN MAGAZINE

I have some bittersweet news. I had my first illustration published on an online magazine http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org/InThisIssue.aspx which is pretty exciting. However, the Magazine has just announced that they are closing and their last issue will be in March.

IF:CRUNCH and 200th POST!!!

I thought I was going to have the time to post this before today, but time flew by this week. I decided to post it anyway since I thought the bunny was cute. It's not a great illustration overall, but it was good to hold a pencil and draw for fun away from all the deadlines and commotion of the holidays.

This is my 200th post and I've been thinking about doing something special to celebrate this post and to thank all of you for your support and friendship. I've connected with some great people through this blog and in the spirit of giving, I've decided to give away 1 signed 8 1/2" x 11" print of my work or smaller depending on what piece you pick to one lucky winner. You get to choose which one, from my web site or from work I've posted here. All you have to do is leave a comment from now until Christmas Eve...and I will draw a winner on Christmas Day and post it here on the 26th.

I hope you are enjoying the holidays.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO...

I finally get to share some of the things I've been working on...

This is a logo I recently designed for an upcoming Auction Gala event at my kid's school. I will be designing the invite to the event as well, so I'll be posting that later on as well.




On a previous post I had shown the invite and place cards for a Baptism. Here's the rest of that project; table numbers and Baptismal programs. I designed and printed the programs and assembled the 7 page booklet which goes inserted in pocket folder (from envelopperinc.com). I was able to add another of my illustrations to this piece, and I was quite happy with the outcome.




The table numbers:


These are the post cards for the white elephant party I have every year. These turned out really cute. One of my favorites.


I haven't had much time to draw this week, but I hope to get back into it soon. I'm still debating whether or no to go to the NY conference. Any ideas??

Have a great week!

IF: ENTANGLED

Pearl's mane would get entangled with the wind every time Jena went galloping down the open field.

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season!

IF: UNBALANCED

The opposite of unbalanced is balanced!

This week's word is a real challenge for me. I'm am very particular about having balance in all my compositions. It really bother's me if something is off balance or 'unbalanced'. Not that I make everything symmetrical, but it needs to have a counter element. I could have illustrated something unbalanced, but I was already having fun with this illustration, so I decided to share it here. I really like the elephant.

Oh, and what is a White Elephant doing in the snow? Well, this is for a White Elephant party...yes! The holiday fun is just beginning!

Have a great week!

Event Stationary

I've been doing a lot of cutting and pasting for a project. A good friend asked me to design all of the stationary for her event and I couldn't say no to a fun project! I had full creative license, so I was able to incorporate one of my illustrations.

The names are a 'blur' on the place card, just so I could tie this in with Illustration Friday!!! --I know!, but I have been so busy lately, my blogging is really suffering. There's one more piece to this, but it's not quite finished...

I hope you all have a great weekend...and thanks for stopping by.

RE-WORKED ILLUSTRATION

Old image


New Image


THANK YOU! I want to start this post by thanking the people that always seem to know when I need some encouragement and always know exactly what to say. I want to say thank you for caring and for taking the time to reach out. I really appreciate it!!!

The holiday season has been officially kicked off at our house, and that usually means that I'll be running around like a chicken without a head until the end of the year!

I wanted to share with you the re-make of one of my favorite illustrations. I had created and animal party a while back and really enjoyed all the characters in it. However, it no longer matched my current style and I had to pull it out of my portfolio. I decided to just re-do it with my new style and I have to say, I'm very pleased with the results.

What do you think?

IF: FAST

I was reflecting recently on my work and my career. I have dedicated a great deal of time to creating a portfolio, and improving my work so that I may become a published illustrator. I am also a freelance graphic designer and enjoy that job thoroughly. I would like to do both, but I notice that it is difficult to wear so many hats, marketing graphic design and illustration are very different things, both which are very time consuming.

My graphic design is picking up, while I'm just hearing crickets over on the illustration side. I'm not quite ready to give it up. I'm not a quitter! I know someone will see potential in my work and will value my dedication and passion. In the mean time, I just need to figure out how to manage the constant chaos of trying to do it all!

I was looking at the illustrations from the beginning of the year until now and I do see tremendous growth! That is great, right? Except that it makes for an inconsistent portfolio. I’ve gone from acrylics to digital and from static to more dynamic work; my characters have also evolved. The eyes are not the same (At some point I was experimenting with dots for eyes). I haven’t deliberately been trying to develop a style. I’ve been pushing myself to become better at what I do, which in turns has affected the look of my work…I believe that the style comes out naturally while you are going through this process.

Although I’m not published yet, I can tell that my work is the best when I’m comfortable with it, and that only happens if I draw what is more natural and comfortable to me, but I only know what that is if I experiment and try new things. I guess for me it’s a dance of balance between these two…familiarity and stretching your limits.

Anyway, my point is that I’m now once again re-touching my portfolio. I am thinking about going to the SCBWI Winter conference in NY and really would need to have a solid portfolio before I can even consider going. By the way, are any of you going?

I’m also busy with my design work, which I also enjoy so much, and is the reason why I don’t have as much time to visit other blogs as I used to. I have some friends that talk about going off grid when it comes to social media networks and Internet. These things can really consume you and take up so much of your time! I wonder myself, would I have more time to do the things I need to do if I did not have a blog and was on twitter and Facebook? Do you wonder the same sometimes? How do you do it?

As a side note, I wanted to invite you all to vote for my son @ GAP’s Casting Call http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/edrianthomidis/717418724/

Have a great week!

IF:FROZEN

This illustration is a stretch for 'Frozen', but it just happens to be what I was working on at the moment. I wonder who'll win this fight?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by and for all your comments!

FREE COLORING PAGE :: RACOONS

Please click on the image and print it to color it. Have fun!